To:†††††† Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents, High School
Principals, and Curriculum Coordinators

From:†† Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

Date:††† May 5, 2004

Re:†††††† Career Technical Education Revisioning Process

Maineís
Career and Technical Education (CTE) schools face unprecedented challenges and
perhaps unanticipated opportunities in the context of current secondary and
postsecondary reform. Consider just a few of the issues currently on the table:

∑Changes in state and federal regulations
regarding accountability for student achievement

∑The emergence of the community college system

∑The increasingly important role of information
technology, including the Maine Learning Technology Initiative† (MLTI) program, and its implications for
Career and Technical Education

∑High school reform efforts such as Promising
Futures

∑Postsecondary attainment symbolized by the
Compact for Higher Education

∑Regionalization efforts

∑The challenges of a technology-based economy

While more demands are being placed
on schools to meet the MaineLearning
Results and the accountability standards of No Child Left Behind, Maine
schools must continue to provide a wide array of learning opportunities that
expand options for students, including Career and Technical Education. It is
our responsibility to ensure that all students achieve the Learning Results
and it is important that we do this in the manner by which they learn best. It
is critical that Career and Technical Education develops a vision and a plan
that capitalizes on the new initiatives and incorporates them with its own
effective practices.

To that end, I have established a
State Advisory Committee for Career and Technical Education. Deputy
Commissioner Patrick Phillips and Mid-Coast School of Technology Director Tim
Hathorne will co-chair the Committee. This committee will oversee the creation
of a new vision for career and technical education and will make
recommendations regarding the implementation of the new vision, including the
identification of exemplary models, promising practices for ensuring that all
students achieve the standards of Maineís
Learning Results, and implications for curriculum, instruction, and
assessment.

A principal task of the Advisory Committee will be
to plan a broader stakeholder event to ensure that the new vision is based on
wide involvement of educators, parents, students, businessmen and women,
post-secondary representatives, and policymakers.† Plans are currently being refined for a
three-day event to be held on June
15-17, 2004 to conduct this phase of the work.†

We are fortunate, indeed, to have secured the
participation of nationally regarded researcher Dr. Willard Daggett, President
of the InternationalCenter
for Leadership in Education who will both keynote the event and participate in
and guide the overall three-day process.†
Over the coming weeks, the Advisory Committee will be contacting potential
participants across the State for the June event.† The current plan is to re-assemble the
stakeholder group in August or early September to critique and refine the
vision and action plan for CTE in Maine.† A final report will be completed and
disseminated in the Fall.

If you have questions or comments, please contact
either Yvonne Davis (yvonne.davis@maine.gov)
or John Stivers (john.stivers@maine.gov).